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Fire chief: budget reductions trim operations but leave long-term capital gap for stations and apparatus
Summary
Fire Chief Randy Royal said the 2026 proposal trims non‑labor spending and transfers fleet/facilities out of Fire, but the department still needs 2–4 new stations and additional apparatus and staff over coming years; he identified a multi‑year funding gap for capital and staffing.
Randy Royal, Fire Chief for the City of Colorado Springs, outlined the Fire Department’s 2026 budget priorities and the tradeoffs administrators made to achieve reductions.
Royal said the department’s total 2026 budget is roughly $109 million, and that labor (salary and benefits) comprises the large majority of that total. He described transfers of fleet and facilities functions out of Fire to city fleet and a reduction of about 10 filled positions tied to those moves plus rifts and vacancies. Non‑labor operational budgets were cut substantially (a 28–43% drop in some lines) to meet the overall targets.
Chief Royal told council the department still faces capital and staffing needs to keep pace with city growth. "If I had the funds today, we would have started 2 more stations this year," he said, and identified priority station locations north and east of the city (including Banning Lewis and Highway 94/24 corridors) where new stations and apparatus would be needed. Royal described apparatus costs of roughly $900,000 for an engine and $1.6–$2.0 million for a truck and said that getting apparatus delivered can take one to two years, complicating timing for new-station openings.
Royal and council discussed delaying one or more training academies to save payroll in 2026; he said a full academy costs roughly $1.1–$1.6 million when salary and the training cost are included and that smaller or lateral academies were options if conditions change. The chief said the department is also pursuing grant funding (wildfire mitigation, AFG grant in a prior year that funded cancer and heart screening) and community foundation support for targeted equipment and programs.
Royal said the department’s longer-term needs are large — he estimated that over the next several years the combined capital and staffing needs to bring facilities and apparatus to the desired level could approach hundreds of millions, and he urged the council to consider additional revenue options (including ballot measures) to address capital shortfalls.
Royal highlighted a set of community-funded pilot programs (drone first-responder, heads‑up CPR equipment, donated thermal-imaging gear) supported by the Fire Foundation and other donors that he said improved operational outcomes and would continue to be pursued where community partners can fund innovation.
